In the evening, Huo Duan massaged Gu Fengyan's waist again, applied ointment, and coaxed him to sleep.

The next day, Gu Fengyan was able to walk steadily again. Apart from some discomfort in his waist and legs, he felt refreshed.

The weather was very good. After breakfast, they went to Xinglinyuan and Dongfulou to collect the money for the medicinal materials as agreed.

The first place we went to was Xinglinyuan.

The medicinal materials that Xue Da sent yesterday weighed several hundred kilograms. Lin Ru was in the hall today and personally gave them several hundred strings of cash.

The summer heat was severe, and sick people came and went in Xinglinyuan with pale faces. Some of them even spoke with foreign accents and were led to the back hall by the waiters.

The back hall was where Liu Ke saw patients and stored medicinal materials. Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan had been there several times when they delivered medicinal materials.

What are these outsiders doing in there? They don’t seem to be sick during the night shift.

Gu Fengyan took a look and felt confused.

Lin Ru gave them the banknotes and said, "Please keep the money for the herbs this time."

"Mr. Lin, I heard the accents of those people are not from here, but what happened in Xinglinyuan?" Huo Duan took the banknote and asked Gu Fengyan to put it away. He also noticed several outsiders who followed the waiter to the back hall in a hurry.

Lin Ru immediately felt a little embarrassed, and he did not hide it from them, "I will not hide it from you two, those people are medicinal herbs buyers from other prefectures... They are here to buy medicinal herbs."

As he spoke, he looked a little ashamed, "You two sent a lot of medicinal herbs, and the back hall couldn't hold them anymore, so I asked someone to contact them to sell some, otherwise they would just be piled up anyway."

"But you two can rest assured. Since we have signed the contract, Xinglinyuan is not a place that goes back on its word. You can just send us the medicinal materials in the future," he added weakly.

When they signed the contract, it was stated that no matter how much medicinal herbs they sent, Xinglinyuan would accept them all. At that time, Lin Ru just thought they were just digging some up the mountain and never thought that the two of them would start a business with this.

All the medicinal materials were stored in the warehouse. Xinglinyuan was in financial difficulty, but it could not violate the contract, so it had to find medicinal material dealers to buy them at a low price.

Gu Fengyan understood immediately.

"I see..." He nodded and smiled, "Part of the reason we came here today is for this."

Lin Ru was surprised, "Oh?"

Huo Duan continued Gu Fengyan's words and said, "We also discovered the backlog of medicinal materials in Xinglinyuan a few days ago, so we thought of discussing it with Mr. Lin today. In the future, we will only supply the quantity that Xinglinyuan needs... This way, the cooperation between the two sides can last for a long time."

He glanced at the surprised Lin Ru and continued, "I'm afraid the price offered by the herbal medicine merchant over there is not high. We can't let Xinglinyuan lose money anyway."

Lin Ru's eyes widened, and he sighed, "It was indeed sold at a low price!"

They were in a hurry to sell, and the other side kept lowering the price. Xinglinyuan had no choice but to agree. Fortunately, Xinglinyuan had some capital and a strong foundation in its early years. If it were some small pharmacy, it would have closed down by now.

Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan thought of this and took the initiative to mention it.

You may earn less money temporarily, what’s important is the long term.

Lin Ru was particularly grateful to the two men for being so reasonable, so he said, "Well, I'd like to thank you both in advance. But what about the contract?"

The contract clearly states that a penalty must be paid for breach of contract. Although they were the first to propose interrupting part of the supply, they were still thinking about Xinglinyuan.

Gu Fengyan smiled, took out the contract from his arms, tore it up, and took out another newly drafted one.

He drafted this overnight.

"Here is a new one, Mr. Lin, take a look and then make a decision...the previous one will be invalidated." Huo Duan took the contract from him and handed it to Lin Ru.

When I saw that the two of them had even drafted a contract, I knew their sincerity.

Lin Ru was also willing to continue cooperating with them, so he took the contract, squinted his eyes to read it for a moment, and signed his name.

"That's good. Thank you for your support in the future..." Lin Ru put away the contract and said.

Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan looked at each other and finally made a request.

"We both have an unwelcome request. I wonder if Mr. Lin is willing to help us." Huo Duan said.

Lin Ru looked up and hesitated, "You can talk as you like."

Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan have always wanted to expand their business. When they first met those foreign medicinal material merchants, they knew that the opportunity had come.

I wanted to ask Lin Ru to help me make an introduction, but I didn't know if he was willing to do this.

After hearing their intentions, Lin Ru readily agreed. Xinglinyuan could not collect so many medicinal materials, and there was no need to block other people's financial path.

They thanked Lin Ru and went to meet two foreign medicinal herb merchants.

It just so happened that they were also interested in purchasing medicinal materials, otherwise they would not have traveled so far to a county pharmacy to buy herbs.

The two parties reached an agreement and signed the contract immediately. Although the amount of money offered was not as generous as that of Xinglinyuan, the quantity required was large, so it was not a loss all in all.

…

Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan entrusted the task of finding medicinal herbs for Jingger to two foreign medicinal herb merchants and Lin Ru, and spent ten strings of silver to get a prescription for Huo's father before leaving Xinglinyuan.

Next, go to Dongfulou.

With the house they gave, Dongfulou had already become famous and was doing very well, crushing the Yingchunlou across the street with no room for survival. Every time Shopkeeper Zhou saw Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan coming, he would stand behind the counter gritting his teeth for a long time, wishing he could eat them alive.

They pretended not to see anything and followed Li Zhangguo into the lobby of Dongfulou. It was lunchtime and the lobby was full of people having lunch. Looking at the waiters busying around upstairs and downstairs, they were afraid that the private rooms upstairs prepared for distinguished guests were all full.

There were many customers and Shopkeeper Li was so busy that he had no time to greet them. He had just said a few words when someone called him away.

Shopkeeper Li was quite apologetic. Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan had nothing to do and didn't want to stay long seeing the situation, so Shopkeeper Li simply gave them 40% of the month's income.

The small Dongfulou actually had a gross profit of more than 500 strings of cash a month, which was something Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan had never imagined.

They got more than one hundred strings of cash.

With such lucrative profits, Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan immediately had an idea. Their medicinal recipes were so popular in a small Qianmo County. If they could open a chain like the Yingchunlou across the street, wouldn't the profits be even lucrative?

Shopkeeper Li was busy running around the hall. Today was not the time to discuss business, so Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan took the money and left.

But after going out for a walk, he had already earned more than 200 strings of cash. He fell from the clouds to the bottom of the clouds, and then climbed up from the mud... This process is really amazing.

Gu Fengyan stepped out of the gate of Dongfulou and stretched himself. The sunlight shone on his face, feeling warm.

"What's wrong? Are you tired?" Huo Duan leaned over and rubbed his waist, chuckling.

Gu Fengyan glanced at him and said, "You are so hypocritical."

Huo Duan was not annoyed after being told off. He smiled like a big dog and leaned towards Gu Fengyan. His movements became ambiguous, "Is your waist feeling better?"

Mentioning this Gu Fengyan made him gnashing with hatred, he said with a "tsk" sound, "What do you think?!"

"It's my fault. Should I carry you back?" The two of them walked to a place with few people and were not far from the house. Huo Duan asked with a smile.

This man's hands seemed to have some magical power, rubbing Gu Fengkuangyan's waist so hard that it felt numb, as if he had pressed some strange switch.

"Don't mess around, there are people here." His voice finally softened, fearing that Huo Duan would do something excessive.

"It's not a mess at all. So what if there are people around..." Huo Duan didn't care. He suddenly grabbed Gu Fengyan's waist and half-carried him on his shoulders.

"Ah..." Gu Fengyan exclaimed and quickly hooked his neck.

"Who dares to interfere with a decent couple?" Huo Duan raised his voice a little.

This attracted the attention of several passers-by. They did not think that it was immoral to see a loving couple behave like this in the street, but instead found it pleasing to the eye. When several unmarried girls saw Huo Duan, they blushed and covered their eyes, not daring to look at him.

Gu Fengyan was completely helpless with him and buried his face in Huo Duan's neck like an ostrich.

At night, Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan finished bathing and washing up, put on their clothes, and studied the menu at the desk.

With water dripping from the ends of her hair, Gu Fengyan rolled up her sleeves and picked up a pen to write down the recipe for a new dish for Dongfulou on white rice paper.

Huo Duan took out a snow-white soft towel from somewhere and dried his hair. Then he looked over his head and saw Gu Fengyan writing.

"Five grams of Epimedium and three grams of black tea, brew with boiling water and drink...it can nourish the kidneys and strengthen the yang, dispel wind and dampness." He read it out and suddenly laughed, "Is this prescription really effective?"

Gu Fengyan turned around and looked at him with a smile, "Why? Mr. Huo needs aphrodisiac?"

Huo Duan pushed him to sit on the stool, rubbed the ends of his hair and rubbed it dry little by little, paused after hearing what he said... and lifted the stool directly and turned it around.

Gu Fengyan had to face him. The tall figure, long legs, and oppressive feeling were overwhelming.

"Do you think I need it?" Huo Duan half leaned over and looked at Gu Fengyan with a smile, from head to toe, his eyes full of malice, "I don't mind..."

Looking at that pair of long legs, broad chest, and burning dark eyes, some images flashed through Gu Fengyan's mind... If Huo Duan was still strong, he would definitely die on the couch.

He swallowed, unable to utter a word.

Gu Fengyan avoided his gaze and his cheeks felt hot.

"Ayan, don't say anything..." Huo Duan suddenly leaned down lower and chuckled at him, "Did I not serve you well?"

The breath was too close, and Gu Fengyan was trapped between his arms, unable to move, and had no power to resist at all.

Gu Fengyan stared at him, "How dare you!"

The angry look had no effect at all. Huo Duan just felt that his eyes could drip tears, and the red at the corners of his eyes and the water on his hair soaked the translucent white pajamas.

This kind of thing will happen a second time once it happens. Once they have tasted it, they get tired of it. The two of them are at the age of lustful pleasures, and the gazes they gave each other became tense after a while.

Gu Fengyan licked his dry and hot lips with the tip of his tongue... Huo Duan could no longer bear it.

He stood up and swept everything on the table away, then pulled Gu Fengyan and pressed him on the table.

The paper fell to the ground and the ink flowed down the table.

Tick-tock.

"Ayan, I have a project worth hundreds of millions that I want to discuss with you..." Huo Duan's eyes were dark, yet particularly bright, and his voice was like a gust of wind.

Gu Fengyan felt uncomfortable all over due to the teasing, and he also felt pain in his back.

"Pervert, pervert!" He covered his eyes, tightened his legs, and cursed in a hoarse voice.

The table couldn't bear the weight, so Huo Duan pulled him up, and up again... Gu Fengyan felt as if the world was upside down, the moonlight was swaying and pouring in through the window, and he was swaying as well.

The wet ink stained their snow-white pajamas, like a messy painting.